Abstract
Purpose: :
Is the application of autologous serum a major enhancer of wound repair of the corneal epithelial surface and better than commercial available tear substitutes?Until now no comparative studies on epithelial wound healing dealing with this question has been published. The simulation of corneal wounds and its healing is one of the key issues of the Ex vivo eye irritation test (EVEIT). Thus we compared epithelial wound healing under influence of hourly repeated applications of eye drops derived from rabbit serum, human serum, unpreserved citrate buffered hyaluronate eye drops and 0.01% benzalconiumchloride containing Ringer's solution.
Methods: :
Live corneas from abattoir rabbit eyes were cultured in the EVEIT system. Each 4 mechanical abrasions on the epithelial corneal surface were posted mechanically. During 4 days every hour the test substances were applied. For each test substance each 8 corneas were cultivated, for negative control with benzalconiumchloride we used 3 corneas
Results: :
The benzalconiumchloride group as negative control showed nearby total corneal erosion. The other groups showed complete epithelial healing without any different in time or extend of healing. There were no significant differences between the tested substances in the EVEIT test.
Conclusions: :
Thus we demonstrate ex vivo wound recovery by means of the EVEIT. Neither human nor autologous rabbit serum improved healing compared to unpreserved citrate hyaluronate eye drops. We can demonstrate that sound and predictive information on epithelial healing of the cornea in pharmaceutical, cosmetic and chemical testing being a suitable replacement for animal experiments is available with the EVEIT test system.
Keywords: wound healing • cornea: epithelium • ocular irritancy/toxicity testing